New Granada was the name given to a group of colonial provinces in northern South America, corresponding mainly to modern Colombia. The name is still used as an alternative to Colombia by some people.

In 1514, the Spanish first permanently settled in the area. With Santa Marta (1525) and Cartagena (1533), Spanish control of the coast was established, and the extension of colonial control into the interior could begin. The conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada colonised a large area in the region, by following the Magdalena River into the Andean cordillera, defeating the powerful Chibcha people and founding the city of Santa Fé de Bogotá (c.1538) (currently Bogotá) and naming the region El nuevo reino de Granada, the new kingdom of Granada, after the kingdom of Granada which had existed until 1492 in southernmost Spain.

To establish civil government in New Granada, an Audiencia (a "court of hearing") was established at Santa Fé de Bogotá in 1548-1549, a body that combined executive and judicial authority, until a presidencia or governor was established in 1564, assuming executive powers. The jurisdiction of the Audiencia court over the surrounding provinces determined the territory corresponding to New Granada, as new provinces were created in the following years.

The governor was loosely dependent upon the Viceroy of Peru at Lima, but the slowness of communications between the two capitals led to the establishment of an independent Viceroyalty of New Granada in 1717; other provinces corresponding to modern Ecuador and Venezuela, and eventually Panama, until then under other jurisdictions, came together in a political unit under the jurisdiction of Bogota, confirming that city as one of the principal administrative centers of the Spanish possessions in the New World, along with Lima and Mexico City. Sporadic attempts at reform were directed at increased efficiency and centralized authority, but control from Spain was never very effective. The establishment of a captain-general in Caracas and a presidency at Quito established local traditions that all the efforts of Simón Bolívar could not overcome.

After Ecuador and Venezuela had established their independence,"the Republic of New Granada" lasted from 1831 to 1856, and "New Granada" was a usage that survived in conservative circles, such as among ecclesiastics. Today, some people in Colombia's neighbor countries still refer to Colombians sometimes as 'neogranadinos'.

Further details are at History of Colombia.

External link

• Colombia History (http://workmall.com/wfb2001/colombia/colombia_history_index.html)